Conan O'Brien will host the 98th Oscars, reuniting with executive producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan, the Academy Press Office has confirmed.

The announcement locks in the same top creative team for the broadcast, pairing O'Brien's on-camera role with Kapoor and Mullan running the show behind the scenes. For an awards telecast, continuity at both positions matters: the host sets the tone of the evening, while the executive producers control format, pacing, runtime and the presentation of the competitive categories themselves.

What does the reunion signal?

The word the Academy chose is "reunite." O'Brien, Kapoor and Mullan worked together on a previous Oscar telecast, and the Academy is bringing the full team back rather than rebuilding around a new host-producer combination. That is a deliberate mechanics decision, not a sentimental one.

A returning team arrives with an established workflow. The host and producers already share shorthand on monologue length, clip packages, presenter choreography and how to handle the in-memoriam segment and the best picture finale. Reunions of this kind typically shorten the rehearsal and rewrite cycle in the weeks before air.

For O'Brien, the gig extends a late-career awards runway. A comedian with decades of live television experience, he brings the improvisational reflexes that Oscar producers prize when a telecast runs long, a speech overruns or a bit dies in the room.

Who does what on the broadcast?

The division of labor follows the standard Oscar telecast structure:

• Conan O'Brien — host. Fronts the ceremony, delivers the opening monologue and anchors the between-award comedy segments.
• Raj Kapoor — executive producer. Runs the telecast production, the same role he has held on prior Academy broadcasts.
• Katy Mullan — executive producer. Shares top production authority with Kapoor across the show's format and staging.

Why keep the same team?

When the Academy re-signs a host and producing pair together, it removes the single biggest variable in Oscar telecast planning. Host transitions historically force producers to restructure the opening, rebuild the comedy spine of the show and recalibrate runtime targets. A returning trio keeps those decisions stable from the first production meeting onward.

The 98th Oscars now enter the season with its telecast leadership settled well ahead of the ceremony. Nominees have yet to be determined, campaigning is still in motion, and the race for nominations remains open — but the question of who will front and produce Hollywood's biggest night is closed.

What changes in the race?

Nothing in the competitive standings, and that is the point. The Academy has secured the broadcast infrastructure early, shifting attention back to the films, the campaigns and the voting calendar that will fill the envelope list O'Brien opens on stage.

Kapoor and Mullan will now move into staffing and format design for the show, while O'Brien's involvement gives the telecast a comic identity months before he steps out for the monologue. The 98th Oscars telecast, in short, begins with its team already assembled.